Improvement in transferring mechanisms for knitted work



' B. F. SHAW. Transferring Mechanism for Knitted Work,-

No. 218,459. Patented Aug. 12, I879.

Fig.3 Fig.4.

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BENJAMIN F. SHAW, OF OAMBRIDGEPORT, ASSIGNOR TO SHAW STOCKING COMPANY,OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSFERRING MECHANISMS FOR KNITTED WORK.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 218,459, dated August12, 1879; application filed March 7, 1879.

ings, ribbed legs of socks, bottoms of drawers,

and cuffs of shirts. These ribbed pieces or tops, so called, are nowusually sewed to the knitted web by means of machines adapted to holdthe loops of the main web and those of the top while a thread-carryingneedle unites them, and also, for some work, the loops of a the top havebeen picked on the machineneedles by hand singly.

In my invention the top, knitted as a tube, is provided with the usualslack course of loops, and such course is placed, by hand, upon thequills of a transferrer, the quills bein g arranged in a circle and at adistance apart corresponding with the circle of machine-needles andtheir distances apart.

In a transferrer for circular machines the number of quills will be thesame as the number of needles. The loops of the tubular tops are placedupon the quills of the transferrers, (a number of these being employedwith each machine) so that the knitter may have the tops set up on suchquills ready to be quickly applied to the machine-needles at a singleoperation.

When the loops of the top are in position on the transferrer, theyextend across the open faces of the quills, and the quills are thenpassed each over a knitting-needle, so that each quill receives theupper end of a needle. Thehooks of the needles, as the quills of thetransferrer are moved longitudinally along the needles,passsimultaneously behind and under the loops held by the quills, andthen the transferrer is withdrawn, leaving the loops of the tubular topheld .by it upon the needles,

and such top set up on the machine-needles may be knitted to, tocomplete the desired fabric.

Figure 1 represents sufficient portions of a knitting-machine toillustrate this invention Fig. 2, a section through the transferrer Fig.3, a detail of the quill, showing the shape of the blank from which itis formed and a side and face view thereof and Fig. 4 represents adetail to illustrate the manner of the operation of the needle in thequill so as to receive a loop from the transferrer.

This invention is illustrated in connection with a circularly-arrangedseries of needles, a, of the latched kind, arranged in the grooves of acylindrical bed, 12; but the needles may be of other well-known kindsasbearded.

It has been deemed unnecessary to show the cam and thread-carrier tooperate the needles and supply them with thread in order that they mayknit a Web, as such devices are well known, and need not be hereindescribed further than to say that they may be moved in any usual way tooperate as in ordinary knitting-machines when knitting either a plain orfashioned web.

The head 0 of the transferring device has at its end an annular seriesof quills, d, attached thereto in any suitable way. These quills arepreferably made from a blank of the form shown at the left-handdelineation of Fig. 3. This blank is then folded centrally, the secondfigure of Fig. 3 showing a side elevation of it so folded, and the thirdfigure shows -a face view of it.

Each blank, when folded into a quill, has a groove, 6, to receive theend of the needle, and a shoulder, f, to hold the loop of the usualslack course against the path of the advancing needle.

Extended from the head is a tail-piece, 9, having an attachedtop-holder, h, pivoted at 'i, preferably by a spring-hinge, and adaptedto hold the top pressed against a shoulder, j.

In Fig. 2 the tubular top is omitted, so as to better show theconstruction of the parts.

In operation, a tubular top or rib piece provided, as usual, with aslack course has the loops of the slack course placed upon the quills d.This is done by hand. To assist in doing this, and to keep the top sodistended as to simultaneously bring the loops of the loose coursenearly opposite the quills which are to receive them, each to each, aweb-expander, k, is placed inside the tubular top, and the tubular topand expander are together inserted within the head 0 until the slackcourse is brought near the ends of the quills, when the stitches formingit are picked over upon the quills. and then I prefer to unravel thewaste end of the tubular top down to the slack course. In this conditionthe expander may be removed. A series of stitches is shown applied tothe quills in Figs. 1 and 4 at I. In a machine of this class employing acylindrf cal series of vertical needles, a frame or rest, m, is placedabout and above the needles to receive the transferrer containing thetop. The outer portion of the transferrer is provided with guides n n,to enter guidcways in the rest to insure the apposition or coincidenceof the quills and needles. The hooks of the machineneedles are allelevated and placed in the same plane, as shown in Fig. l. Devices foraccoin plishing this will be shown in connection with a knittingmachinedescribed in another application filed by me March 7, 1879, for UnitedStates Letters Patent. This being done, the transferrer is placed inposition with reference to the needles, as in Fig. l, and so that theupper ends of the needles extend into the spaces 6 of the quills, thebacks of the hooks, in the case shown, resting in the cavities of thequills. The loops I of the top having now been placed simultaneouslyupon the needles, they may be pushed down over the latches or drawn downby the hooks, either method being determined by convenience dependentupon the particular construction of the machine, when the knitting to itof the work to be added may he proceeded with.

Precisely what manipulation is required will depend upon the arrangementof the different parts of the luiitting-machine, and will readilysuggest themselves to persons skilled in the art of knitting bymachinery.

A linking-machine, to apply tops to the legs of half-hose, requires askilled operator to run it, and the stocking at the junction of the topand knitted web to which it is joined has but limited elasticity.

According to my invention cheap labor may be employed to put the topsupon the transferrers, and each top at the point where the web issubsequently knitted to it has all the elasticity and strength of theother parts of the knitted fabric. It will therefore be seen that by theuse of this transferrer the long delay that would occur in picking onthe tubular top over the needles, loop by loop, while the machine isstopped, is avoided, the transfer to the machine-needles being effectedquickly. After the loops are transferred to within the flute of thequill, the quill is flared toward the point by curving the sides outwardand the point backward, as shown in Fig. 3.

In a circular transferrer the circumference of the tips of the series ofquills is somewhat less than that of the backs of the series of needles,the needles, upon entering the flutes, impinging upon the inner sides ofthe flutes at varying distances from the edges and points, and areforced slightly outward when the quills are pushed along in contact withthem in transferring the work.

The depth of the flute or groove, especially at the shoulder, where theloop rests, will be commensurate with the size of the hook or barb ofthe needle, as will be readily under.- st-ood. And I prefer that theshoulder ot'tbe head or qnilled ring shall be placed opposite theshoulder in the quill, so that the loop may be drawn at a right angle tothe quill in tightening it preparatory to transferring.

The device for drawing taut and holding the work within the transferrermay be dispensed with whenever it is desirable to push the loop of thework to he transferred below the latches. In such case a con1b-like barmay be inserted within thecircular tail-piece to depress the work, sothat the loops will pass from the hooks to a position below the latchesof the needles.

A series of quills, suclras described, arranged in a straight bar, asindicate-din Fig. 4, and designed to be applied to the backs of thehooks of the needles to transfer the loops of a straight-rib top fromsuch hooks to the needles, is an obvious application of my invention tothe straight-knittingmachine.

I claim-- 1. A stationary transferring device con sistin g of a circularhead provided with a se" ries of quills, upon which the loops of theknitted tubular top are placed, in combination with a cylindrical seriesof needles, whereby all the loops of the tubular top may besimultaneously placed opposite and applied to the machine-needles, inorder. that a circular web may be knitted to it,'all substantially asdescribed.

2. The combination, with a circular series of machine-needles, of astand or support, a stationary transferrer, and guides to simultaneouslyplace each quill ,of the stationary transferrer 111 line with'an'dopposite to its needle, to permit the loops to be transferred while thetransferrer is held from beiug'irotated, substantially as described.

3. A transferrer provided with quills to re;- ceive the loops of a to'p,incoii1bination with a top-expander adapt'ed't'o be placed with the topwithin the transferrer, substantially as de scribed.

4. A transferrer, in combination with a topholder adapted to hold'thtopwithin we the needles the guide-frame may be removed. transferrer,substantially:as'described;I

5. In a transferring device for knitting-ma- To facilitate the entranceof the needle chines, a series of curved quills adapted to name to thisspecification in the presence of hold theories of loops, and to besimultanetwo subscribing witnesses.

ously applied each quill t0 the back of a. needie, to permit the seriesof loops to be trans- BENJAMIN SHAW ferred from the quills to theneedles, substan- Witnesses:

tia lly as set forth. i G. W. GREGORY,

In testimony whereof I have signed my S. B. KIDDER.

